Testbed:

Motherboard: MSI P45D3 Platinum ( Provided by: MSI );
Processor: Intel Core 2 QX9770 Extreme edition at 3.6GHz ( Provided by: Intel );
Memory: Corsair Dominator 12800 7-7-7-24 ( Provided by: Corsair);
HDD: WD VelociRaptor 300G 10,000RPM ( Provided by: SmoothCreation );

The charts also feature results of the GTX 280 card overclocked to GTX 285’s speed, and they’re marked with GTX 280 OC. Additionally, the OC suffix on Inno3D GTX 285 suggests that this card was overclocked too. 

Futuremark Tests



3DMark 06 shows a minimum performance difference between the GTX 285 cards. Of course, the difference is more notable when compared to the GTX 280. The results were better by about 4%, whereas Inno3D’s overclocked card scored almost 6% better.

After an overclock amounting to about 10%, Vantage test sees the Inno3D card beat the reference GTX 285 by about 4% and the old GTX 280 by 24%.




Gaming



Call of Duty









The reference GTX 285 lags behind Inno3D’s card by about 5%, but the GTX 280 lags even more, up to 16%. Overclocking Inno3D’s card brings 5% better results. Although HD 4870 X2 leads the pack at lower resolutions, the highest tested resolution sees the overclocked GTX 285 catching up, but not beating it.



Far Cry 2









When the filters are on, the GTX 295 and HD 4870 X2 are clearly sticking out and they’re faster than the GTX 285 by 42 and 24 percent, respectively. At the same 1680x1050 resolution, the GTX 285 outperforms the GTX 280 and HD 4870 1GB by 8 and 31 percent, respectively. Note that in most tests it runs neck an neck with the GTX 280. At 1680x1050, we see Inno3D GTX 285 scoring 60fps, which clearly paints the picture of its strength.





At 1920x1200, GTX 295 and HD 4870 X2 beat the reference GTX 825 by 39 and 27 percent. GTX 285 outscores the HD 4870 1GB and GTX 280 by 13 and 8 percent respectively, whereas overclocked GTX 280 results are once again identical. Inno3D outruns the reference GTX 285 by about 5%.

After turning the filters on, GTX 295 and HD 4870 X2 outrun the GTX 285 by 45 and 28 percent whereas the GTX 285 leaves the HD 4870 1GB and GTX 280 behind by 27 and 8 percent better results, respectively. The overclocked GTX 280 still runs on par with the reference GTX 285.





Here we see Inno3D beat the HD 4870 1GB by more than 50%, and it outruns the reference GTX 285 by almost 10%.



World in Conflict

Only at the higher resolutions did we see the overclocking benefit, but it wasn’t as noticeable as in the previous games.




















Conclusion

With the revamp under the hood, namely the 55nm graphics chip, the GTX 280 turns into GTX 285. As far as speed goes, the new card is 46MHz faster and it helps it in beating the GTX 280. Although it’s a much more durable graphics processor that runs cooler and consumes less, factory overclocking tops off at 700MHz, as partners deemed this the appropriate maximum for their warranties. Inno3D did the same thing launching their GTX 285 Overclock card running at 700MHz.

Unfortunately, we didn’t particularly like the fact that shader speeds were left unchanged, despite the fact that the core was overclocked. Inno3D card beats the reference GTX 285 by about 5 percent in average. After some additional overclocking, we managed to score a result of over 20% better than the reference GTX 280 and about 10% better than GTX 285.

The card looks nice with Inno3D’s golden sticker on a black cooler, but note that everything else is reference design. The cooler is dual slot and performs well with no exceptionally loud noise levels.

Inno3D will treat you to two bundled games – Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts and Warmonger, and you’ll be off to a great gaming start. Of course, this card will serve you well afterwards as well, as it packs some serious muscle. GTX 285 is the fastest single-GPU card that has the HD 4870 X2 for competition, but if you prefer Nvidia and dual-chip GTX 295 is too pricey for you – then this is the fastest card you can currently buy.